Plautus´ Amphitruo: Three Problems

Abstract

P LAUTUS' Amphitruo is a work of perennial mystery. Its dissimilarity to all other Roman comedies, its ambiguous genre (a tragicomoedia, says the Prologue), the baffling question of its source (suggestions ranging from Middle Comedy to the drama of Magna Graecia), the inconsistency of its action (conception of Heracles and birth in the same time period), its unique stage requirements (a second storey, not found otherwise in comedy), the possibility that one scene (551-632) takes place at a different location (if true, a feature unexampled elsewhere in Roman comedy),' the attribution of a nearby port to Thebes, and even some astronomical confusion about the time of night (dusk or approaching dawn)2-these and many other problems have led to vigorous debate and widely divergent conclusions, all the more firmly held because, as Ernout observed of one set of them, some are insoluble.3 Many of the discussions have clarified patterns of structure and details of humor even when not solving the larger questions. If a relationship to Euripides' Bacchae can be shown, for example, then the name of the ancilla, Bromia, is a comic touch that would otherwise be missed.4 I dealt in detail with many of these questions and others long ago in an article which traced the dependence of parts of the Amphitruo on Euripides' Bacchae. At about the same time I discussed yet another mystery in the play, the identity of Nocturnus in line 272.5 I should like now to return to the Amphitruo and bring together three